Heel clamp for ski binding



July 25, 1967 P. J. SALOMON 3,332,696

HEEL CLAMP FOR SKI BINDING Filed Jan. 18, 1965 l 6 1 u 16 1a 20 X r 15 H Fig2 Georges P J. Salomon INVENTOR.

AGENT United States i atet Free 3,332,696 HEEL CLAMP FOR SKI BINDING Georges Pierre Joseph Salomon, 34 Rue de Loverchy, Annecy, Haute-Savoie, France Filed Jan. 18, 1965, Ser. No. 426,304 Claims priority, application France, Jan. 21, 1964,

3 Claims. of. 280-1135) My present invention relates to ski bindings and, more particularly, to a heel clamp for such bindings adapted to exert a substantially horizontal forward thrust upon the boot of the skier whereby the front of the boot is maintained in engagement with a suitable detent or toe clamp.

The heel clamps of conventional ski bindings, especially those which for reasons of safety are designed to yield to severe stresses in order to release the boot in the event of a fall,'are of relatively complicated construction and are frequently inconvenient to apply, often requiring the user to bend down and perform intricate maneuvers with his fingers in order to fasten the snow-encrusted binding to the boot. Furthermore, the presence of relatively slidable parts in known binding constructions impairs their drawbacks and is of simple, inexpensive and dependable construction.

A more particular object of my invention is to provide a heel clamp of this type which can be closed by a simple stepping of the user upon the runner, with nothing more than a preliminary setting of the clamp in a position facing the descending heel of the skier.

It is also an object of this invention to provide means in such heel clamp for exerting both horizontal and downward thrusts upon the heel, again in a yieldable manner, thereby allowing a reduction in the horizontal pressure to which the heel must be subjected in order to prevent untimely release.

An improved heel clamp according to my invention comprises one or more supporting elements carried on a runner rearwardly of a skiers boot, one supporting element having pivotally mounted thereon a depending, generally vertical pusher member with a heel-engaging lower portion which is urged forwardly by resilient means, advantageously an adjustable compression spring, bearing upon that lower portion and upon the same or another supporting element. The forward thrust of this lower portion of the swingable pusher member exerts upon the heel of the boot a clamping pressure designed to hold it engaged, under normal skiing conditions, with the forward part of the binding which may be of conventional construction. When a severe strain tends to lift the heel off the runner to an extent sufficient to disengage it from the thrust portion of the pusher member, the boot is released but may subsequently be re-engaged by a downward motion of its heel.

Means may be provided in conjunction with my improved heel clamp for holding the heel centered on the runner in its engaged position. According to a more particular feature of my invention, such centering may be effected with the aid of lateral flanges on the heel-engaging portion of the pusher member itself; thus, this portion may be bifurcate and provided with a heel-contacting roller journaled between its arms, the roller having a concave profile resembling that of a spool so as to bear upon the heel at least by its outer flanges and possibly also along its central zone.

According to a further advantageous feature of my invention, one of the supporting elements is fixedly secured to the runner whereas the other one is pivotable thereon and carries not only the swingable pusher member but also the biasing spring thereof and a projection designed to hold down the heel against the runner, this pivotable supporting element having the form of a twoarm lever whose arms form a quadrilateral with the pusher member and the biasing spring; the pressure of this spring then has the dual effect of exerting a forward thrust upon the heel-engaging portion of the pusher member and creating a downward force at the forward extremity of the arm to which this member is articulated, a forward extension of this arm being thus engageable with a horizontal shoulder of the heel to restrain the latter against upward motion under normal skiing conditions.

The above and other features of my invention will become more fully apparent by the following detailed description of certain embodiments, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of part of a runner equipped with my improved heel clamp, a rear portion of the boot engaged by this clamp being also visible;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on line 11-11 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, showing a modification;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional 'view similar to FIG. 1, illustrating another modification; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on line VV of FIG. 4.

In FIGS. 1 and 2 I have shown a heel clamp for a ski binding according to my invention, adapted to engage the heel 1 of a boot 2 resting on a runner 30. The runner carries a heel plate 25 forming part of a generally U- shaped housing with side walls 6 spanned by' a horizontal pin 5. A bracket 4 swingably depends from pin 5 and terminates at its bifurcate lower end in a pair of arms 11 spanned by another pin 10 on which a spoolshaped roller 8 is journaled. As best seen in FIG. 2, this roller makes contact with the heel 1 at three spacedapart points, i.e. at its lateral flanges 8', 8" and at its central zone.

To hold the roller 8 yieldably against the heel 1, I provide an expanding coil spring 16 which is anchored at one end to a stud 17 on bracket 4 and bears with its other end upon the enlarged head 19 of a screw 20 having a recess 18 to receive the spring 16. Screw 20 is threaded into a boss 24, rising between the side walls 6, and has a slot 6' by which it may be rotated to adjust the stress of compression spring 16; a counternut 26 serves to hold the screw 20 in its adjusted position.

It will be understood that the boot 2 is releasa'bly held at its forward end, not shown, by conventional toe-engaging means mounted on the runner 30, this engagement being normally maintained by the forward thrust exerted upon heel 1 by the roller 8 under the pressure of spring 16 which tends to swing the bracket 4 clockwise, as indicated by arrow 15, about its fulcrum 5. Slight vertical motions of the heel with reference to runner 30, which occur during normal shiing, are not unduly impeded by the spring-pressed thrust roller 8. If, however, severe stresses cause the heel 1 to rise above its point of engagement with roller 10, the boot is released and arm 4 swings clockwise into a more nearly horizontal position as determined by the degree of compression of spring 16. When, thereafter the user desires to re-engage the boot with the binding, he need only step upon the runner with the boot in the proper position to bring the heel 1 respect to the vertical midplane of housing 6, 25, which are fastened to the runner by means of screws 42 and are advantageously designed as generally Z-s'haped brackets with upper wings 41 bearing resiliently upon the heel 1.

In FIGS. 4 and 5 the fixed supporting structure of FIG. 1 has been partly retained but the spring mount 24 rigid with housing 6, 25 has been omitted, along with pin 5, While a two-arm lever 52 has been fulcrumed on a pin 53 spanning the rear portions of the side walls 6. The substantially horizontal arm 52a of lever 52 has a trapezoidal slot 56 in which a bracket 50 is hinged on a pin 51, the lower extremity of this bracket constituting a heel-engaging portion provided with divergent arms 55. A forward extension 520 of arm 52a overlies a horizontal shoulder 1' of heel 1 to hold the latter down under the urging of a compression spring 62 lodged in a recess 66 of the generally vertical arm 52b of lever 52. Spring 62 is anchored to bracket 50 at a boss 63 thereof and is again received in an enlarged head 64 of an adjusting screw 65 provided with a counternut 67. It will be noted that the fulcra of pusher member 50 and lever 52, i.e. the mobile pin 51 and the fixed pin 53, normally lie substantially at the level of heel face 1'.

In operation, spring 62 tends to swing bracket 50 about its pin 51in a clockwise direction, as indicated by an arrow 60 in FIG. 4, thus again exerting a forward thrust upon the engaged heel 1 of boot 2. The reaction force of the spring, communicated to arm 52b, urges the lever 52 counterclockwise about its fulcrum 53 so that extension 52c thereof bears downwardly upon shoulder 1' to hold the heel in place. As in the embodiment previously described, the heel 1 is free to move limitedly upwardly during normal use. In the presence of excessive stress, however, heel 1 overcomes the force of spring 62 sufficiently to escape the projection 520 so as to disengage itself from the thrust portion 55 of member 50. If this disengagement is only partial, i.e. if projection 52:; has remained in contact with the rear portion of heel 1 (though no longer bearing upon the shoulder 1' thereof), the procedure may readily be reversed by a descent of the heel which depresses the arms 55 of pusher member 50 and swings the latter counterclockwise, against the force of spring 62, to restore the situation illustrated in FIG. 4. If the release had been complete, the user merely needs to lift up the lever 52 into a position in which the underside of heel 1 will enter between the tip 52c and the arms 55, which at this time will be held more nearly in line with arm 52:: by the pressure of spring 62, in order that the re-engagement of the heel by the clamp may be effected through a simple stepping upon the runner 30.

It will be apparent that the bracket 50 of FIG. 4 can be modified to include a roller, such as those shown in FIGS. 1-3, and that conversely the pusher member 4 of FIG. 1 could be given a shape resembling that of member 50, 55. These and other modifications, readily apparent to persons skilled in the art, are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of my invention except as otherwise limited by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A heel clamp for a ski binding, comprising a fixed support carried on a runner rearwardly of a skiers boot, a two-arm lever pivoted to said support above said runner at a first fulcrum relatively remote from said boot for swinging movement in a vertical longitudinal plane of said runner, a depending pusher member with an upper extremity mounted on an arm of said lever at a second fulcrum relatively close to said heel for swinging movement in said plane, said pusher member having a lower extremity provided with a heel-engaging formation adapted to bear upon the heel of said boot below a horizontal shoulder of said heel, said lever having an extension overlying said shoulder, and expansible spring means bearing upon the other arm of said lever and upon said lower extremity for urging the latter forwardly against said heel and concurrently maintaining said extension in yieldable contact with said shoulder while letting said heel escape upwardly in response to severe stresses.

2. A heel clamp as defined in claim 1 wherein said fulcra are disposed substantially at the level of said shoulder.

3. A heel clam-p as defined in claim 1 wherein said other arm is provided with a generally horizontal forward recess, said spring means comprising a coiled compression spring received in said recess and projecting substantially horizontally forwardly therefrom.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,879,071 3/1959 King 280-1135 3,039,782 6/1962 Lee 280-11.-35

3,228,708 1/1966 Miller 280-1135 3,233,911 2/1966 Miller 28011.35

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,363,150 5/1964 France.

BENJAMIN HERSH, Primary Examiner.

J. H. BRANNEN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A HEEL CLAMP FOR A SKI BINDING, COMPRISING A FIXED SUPPORT CARRIED ON A RUNNER REARWARDLY OF A SKIER''S BOOT, A TWO-ARM LEVER PIVOTED TO SAID SUPPORT ABOVE SAID RUNNER AT A FIRST FULCRUM RELATIVELY REMOTE FROM SAID BOOT FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT IN A VERTICAL LONGITUDINAL PLANE OF SAID RUNNER, A DEPENDING PUSHER MEMBER WITH AN UPPER EXTREMITY MOUNTED ON AN ARM OF SAID LEVER AT A SECOND FULCRUM RELATIVELY CLOSE TO SAID HEEL FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT IN SAID PLANE, SAID PUSHER MEMBER HAVING A LOWER EXTREMITY PROVIDED WITH A HEEL-ENGAGING FORMATION ADAPTED TO BEAR UPON THE HEEL OF SAID BOOT BELOW A HORIZONTAL SHOULDER OF SAID HEEL, SAID LEVER HAVING AN EXTENSION OVERLYING SAID SHOULDER, AND EXPANSIBLE SPRING MEANS BEARING UPON THE OTHER ARM OF SAID LEVER AND UPON SAID LOWER EXTREMITY FOR URGING THE LATTER FORWARDLY AGAINST SAID HEEL AND CONCURRENTLY MAINTAINING SAID EXTENSION IN YIELDABLE CONTACT WITH SAID SHOULDER WHILE LETTING SAID HEEL ESCAPE UPWARDLY IN RESPONSE TO SEVERSE STRESSES. 